Brain Rot

About this episode

Ava explores the impact of screens on teenagers' mental health through interviews and a real-time brain activity experiment.

Are screens rewiring kids' brains and creating a generation of depressed teens? After Jonathan Haidt published his mega-bestseller The Anxious Generation, a lot of parents became convinced that they were. But the science tells a more complicated story. Ava interviews several scientists studying technology's impact on our brains, then takes matters into her own hands. She meets up with Dr. Emma Duerden, Canada Research Chair in Neuroscience and Learning Disorders, to conduct her own experiment: monitoring a teenager's brain activity in real-time while she scrolls through her phone. What they discover might surprise you.

People in this episode

Host: Ava

Guest: Dr. Emma Duerden

Topics covered

• technology
• mental health
• neuroscience
• teenagers
• screen time
• depression

Keywords

• screens
• brain activity
• depressed teens
• technology impact
• mental health
• experiment

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Canada Research Chair in Neuroscience and Learning Disorders

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